Poison Ivy Woes


LeAnn posted this blog on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 11:57 pm

It’s a short story but a miserable one.

The cat walked through the poison ivy.

I picked up the cat.

I now have a patch of poison ivy blisters on my left arm measuring six inches by six inches. It is draining so much that I am going through a gauze bandage and a nonstick bandage every two hours. The bandages get soaked with fluid — I change the bandage– the bandages get soaked, I change the bandage. I am also now on my third roll of bandage tape to hold on the bandages.

I can’t say that it itches particularly much. But my skin is raw and oozing. At first I treated it with straight Calamine lotion. Monday I went to the pharmacy and found some stuff called Ivarest that is a combination of calamine, alcohol and diphenhydramine.

Actually, Tuesday was an improvement over Monday. On Monday when I would take the bandages off, I would lay a Kleenex or a piece of paper towel over the blisters, and the tissue would be immediately soaked with fluid. I’d take off the tissue, and then I could just sit there and watch the blisters fill up again in a matter of seconds.  Tuesday wasn’t quite that bad.

And my — but don’t I feel sorry for myself!  Pitiful me!

I have had poison ivy three or four times in my life, but never a reaction this bad, and never a patch this big.

I’ve got a patch of it on my left arm, too, but that’s only about four inches by two inches and hasn’t blown up nearly as much as the right arm, although it, too, has  blisters.

I first noticed the reaction Thursday morning after I got to the newspaper office. As soon as I noticed it I went into the bathroom and washed my arm, but apparently I did not notice it soon enough. Sure, you can neutrailize the poison ivy oil if you wash the area right away. Except how can you do that if you don’t know you were exposed?

Randy says I have to wash the cat before I pick it up.

I can see it now —

“Stay there, kitty, while I get the hose. . .”

LeAnn R. Ralph

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